AS A student participant it was enlightening to hear Mr. NK singh, Member Parliament, to spell out in clear crisp terms the areas in which India and Japan could co-operate and collaborate for mutual gains. As pointed out by Mr. Singh, 200 million children got to primary school in India of which only 40% go on to the secondary level of which only 11% go to university. Therefore, the first challenge for India was to increase the supply side response in secondary and university level in regard to availability of infrastructure and institutions besides using existing capacities.

Secondly, India also faces a huge shortage of faculty, which needs to be trained and re-trained. Not just access but quality of education also needs to be ensured because education, undoubtedly, is the most important catalyst for growth. Another point of concern for India according to Mr. Singh is the jobless growth witnessed in the last decade despite almost 9% rate of economic growth in the last few years. This indicates the need for ensuring that education should also be geared to providing gainful employment opportunities. Thus, the importance of vocational education cannot be overlooked

Fourthly, Mr. Singh underlined the need for public-private partnership, which was the only sustainable model of growth in the education system. Given this background, a partnership between India and Japan in the field of education would prove to be a catalyst for India’s growth. Enormous opportunities were waiting to be garnered. Mr. Singh brought to the notice of the audience that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on education in education, he had approved the ‘foreign university bill’ and therefore there was a lot to look forward to in the future for both countries.